Mr. Gene Meyers
Meyers has worked for 25 years as an industrial engineer and V.P. of Engineering with several non-aerospace firms in southern California. In 1981 he attended a presentation at USC on the concept of leaving the space shuttle’s hollow, 741-sized external fuel tank in orbit when its odorless fuel was gone, and converting the tank’s interior to living and working quarters for commercial tenants. As an industrial engineer, Mr. Meyers recognised that this secondary revenue source could actually make the space shuttles profitable to operate. As a sideline to his regular career he began writing articles and giving talks about this new approach. The response from potential tenants was strong, but Mr. Meyers found that the U. S. defense contractors who built space vehicles for the government had no expertise in marketing this concept to non-aerospace industries. In 1999, after taking early retirement from the automotive division of TRW, he incorporated the Space Island Group to pursue this commercial market. His organization reviewed several variations of this shuttle-derived concept and gathered detailed requirements from potential tenants. He also explored non-government funding sources that could support this multi-billion program. By mid-2005 his group had identified potential funding sources. He is working on space solar power projects and other energy and environmental programs for commercial space development.